Theodore Parker: Preacher and Reformer

THE Atlantic cable of 1858 had been a whole
month's wonder and then had fallen silent. It was
not until 1866 that it again became vocal Nevertheless it is a strange thing that the news of Parker's death, May 10th, did not reach Boston before
May 29th. On the evening of that day the Unitarians held their annual festival in the Music Hall,
and several of the speakers referred to the overshadowing event which made the great hall seem
a conscious mourner for the manly voice to which
it never would again resound. Straight from his
heart, and with unstinted praise, James Freeman
Clarke spoke of his friend, paying a noble tribute
to his intellectual and moral worth, and frankly
accepting for the Unitarian body the paternity of
this man - child who had proved so troublesome.
The anti-slavery journals tempered their doubts of
his theology with recognition of his anti-slavery
zeal. The "Advertiser" said, "From whom has
his rough surgery not cut away some old prejudices, to whom has his treatment not brought some
cure, whose eyes has he not opened to such views of
controversies of never-ending importance as would

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